He is one of the most energetic coaches the NRL has ever seen, but Melbourne Storm mentor Craig Bellamy has admitted his antics were once so over the top he deserved to be reprimanded by his players.
Since taking over from Mark Murray in 2003, Bellamy has become an NRL meme for his infamous sprays, chair kicks, water bottle throwing and passionate coaching antics.
He took on the responsibility after completing a coaching apprenticeship under Wayne Bennett at the Brisbane Broncos and has been a mainstay of the Storm and their success ever since.
His anger and love of expletives earned him a purpose-built coaches box at BCU Stadium in Coffs Harbour so fans couldn’t hear him erupt when he was coaching the City Origin team.
“How come Bellamy has his own coaches box with a great view of the field, while I have to sit here?” national coach Tim Sheens asked Geoff Carr, the then general manager of NSWRL, at the time.
“Because he swears and you don’t,” Carr replied.
Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy embarks on one of his trademark mid-match tirades
The Storm mentor revealed he had to tone down his aggressive nature during training with the players
But in an interview with Storm players Cam Munster, Ryan Papenhuyzen and Jahrome Hughes on the Clubhouse podcast, Bellamy said he actually had to step it up a notch before a player would hit back.
“I’m much calmer,” he said this week.
‘I don’t know if that’s the right word for training you guys, but I don’t do individual sprays like I used to.
‘A few times it would have been justified if someone had put one on my chin.
“I’ve mellowed out a bit and a few people have said that to me. When Billie, my granddaughter, was born, people said I seemed more relaxed.
‘Nowadays you wouldn’t get away with some of the things I said when I first started out.
“But I probably got my head around it a little bit. At the same time, it’s kind of who I am. At some point, you have to be honest with players.
‘I convey the message more calmly, but I still say what I think.’
Another change Bellamy had to implement during his tenure was recruiting players purely based on talent.
The Storm have built a reputation for developing minor or minor first-class players into superstars, but Bellamy said that this required looking at potential players beyond their on-field skills.
‘Earlier in my career…as [players] had problems outside of football, but that didn’t matter to me,’
‘We can solve that, as long as they can play football.
‘But I think we look at it a little bit differently these days. We put the person before the player.
We do a lot of research into what kind of person [they are] – from schoolmasters, their coaches from the lower grades.
‘Now we invest much more time in [working out] if they fit our identity and what we stand for.
‘The football club is only as good as the quality of our people.’
Bellamy spoke to current Melbourne Storm players on the Clubhouse podcast
Cameron Munster, Jahrome Hughes and Ryan Papenhuyzen (not pictured) host the podcast
Ironically, this change could have meant that Cooper Cronk would never have made his debut for the Storm had he arrived later.
“When Cooper first came here he was a bit of a party animal, but he did like a drink,” Bellamy said.
‘He came as a fullback and five-eighth and played a bit of a lock. He came from Brisbane Norths for two seasons and he didn’t even make our squad.
“But at the end of 2005 he came off the bench and played probably 10 or 12 games. He came into the second row a bit and in the centre. He was our Wishy (Tyran Wishart).”
“Matt Orford was our halfback but he went to Manly and we couldn’t really find a halfback in the market that we were happy with,” Bellamy said.
‘It wasn’t me, but someone else came up with the idea [for Cronk to play halfback]. We said, ‘Why don’t we give Cooper a shot there?’ So I sat down and talked to him.’
Cooper Cronk had to work hard under Bellamy to become the champion halfback he became
“I told him he needs to improve his kicking and his passing,” Bellamy said.
‘I’ve never, even to this day, seen a guy kick, pass and catch the ball as much in pre-season as Cooper.
‘When he started the season it seemed like he had been there forever.
“It shows how much time and effort you put into it and how much hard work you put in. It gets you to where you want to be.”
‘Cooper [and Billy Slater] were self-made guys. If they hadn’t worked as hard as they did, they would never have had the careers that they had.’